nc211

Ok, 5 weeks ago I took in the Benz to the dealership next to my office, which is a major outfit. Problem - a vibration and groaning noise between 60-75 mph on highway. A week later (this is when I had the new E300 loaner), I’m told two slightly bent rims. Ok, I have a warranty for that, please fix it. Two days later, told its fixed. 20 minutes after leaving dealership on highway, vibration and groaning noise still there, no change. So I text the service tech, no response, dead air.

Today I took it to a local independent who works on nothing but MB’s. True German mechanic, has true German shop, owns many MB vehicles personally. Knows his stuff. Decided to have a PPI done with intention of taking list to dealership with instructions to fix all.

PPI resulted in a near perfect outcome. Nothing wrong. Except......

wait for it..

Wait for it...

Two slightly bent rims! So, not only did the dealership completely lie about fixing the rims, they also charged the warranty company $300 to fix them. Needless to say that I am not happy.

originating dealer is going to fix the car instead, and I’ve had a conversation with both Mercedes Corporate and the warranty company about this dealership. Reading all of the yelp reviews, I think it’s time someone bark at these morons!

thefisch

Wow. Good thing you let MBUSA know. If they did it with you, they probably did the same with others.

Why not start barking back by naming/flaming them here so others know to steer clear?

nc211

Yep, it was just purely unethical behavior. I’ve been surrounded by these types for the past month! On Black Friday I took our family SUV to a national tire chain for a simple alignment and balance because I knew they had the Hunter equipment. Guess what happened? I’ll give you a hint - probably a good idea to make sure all 4 wheels are bolted back into the car befo

thefisch

I've had my problems with franchises like tire shops that are poorly run. Would never expect that from MB but I guess I am naive. Just goes to show you that you can't take anything for granted.

At least the reviews show you're not alone and others know about their bad service.

Pristine

nc211 - Which independent shop did you go to? Did they seem reasonable priced and knowledgeable? Most dealers in this area are arrogant and morons.

Mud

That's awful about the dealer and even worse about the franchise place. I always worry especially about the latter for the same reasons you mentioned. I'm lucky on the dealer, my local one is excellent. But it seems many dealer service depts don't get that good service gets repeat buyers.
Good luck with the SUV, hope its repaired right.

nc211

On a recommendation from another MB owner with well over 100k miles, I took it to Silver Star Motors in Vienna. The owner himself (Peter) handled my car for me. Totally knows his stuff. I asked if he worked on VW's too because my 15' GTI is ready for the DSG transmission service, and was shot down. Only Mercedes Benz, nothing else. Said the nearby dealership that I'm speaking about, totally hates him. Offered to reinspect my car after the next round of repairs to confirm everything was done right, for free! No hiding the shop from the customers, no door to block view. They have clear plastic safety drapes on the door from the front desk to the service bay that looked to be able to handle 5 at a time. Small shop, but completely equipped to handle all things Mercedes Benz.

When he came up front to get me to report the findings, and said everything is excellent, you've bought a great one, but want to show you one thing, my gut feeling was that I already knew what he was about to show me. When he spun the front axle, easy to see. But when he spun the back one too, the friggin dent on the inside of the driver's side rear wheel was beyond excusable, and absolutely the cause of the vibration and associated noise. I've had bent rims on my GTI's in the past, and the feeling is exactly the same. I could feel my blood pressure raising with each revolution of those wheels.

Hopefully my month of Murphy's Law is going to come to an end soon. First the Toyota, then Auburn beats Alabama, then the 5 foot electrician bringing a 14 foot ladder for a 20 foot ceiling (replacing chandelier), and so on. Toyota is just waiting on new sheet metal for front fender, problem with benz finally confirmed with scheduled fix with eyes watching, and a new electrician is coming tomorrow morning to try again for this chandelier. He at least confirmed he's bringing the 16 foot ladder! Everybody has these cycles of bumping into the idiot crowds of life. Mine started on Black Friday, and hoping to be done and back to center by Christmas!

Here's the Toyota when that lucky star of idiocy showed up in my universe.

kp1

There is a plague of people that just don't know what they're doing. Sprinkle a bit of arrogance on top of that and that's the car service business. My limited experience is that the worst thing you can be at a Mercedes service shop is an informed consumer. If you know anything about mechanics or electronics, they just seem to hate it. In your case, you're having a run of bad juju.

hyperion667

Gad damn, good luck to you Sir.

Magicman09

Wow, Thats insane.. I would be furious. Good luck to you on getting it fixed. No one would blame you if you lost your sh*t on them.

nc211

Ha! Thanks guys! Hopefully my wave of BS is starting to fade off. At least the chandelier got installed this morning as scheduled with no issues!

im more angry at MB than I am about the Toyota. The Toyota was just a stupid and unintentional mistake. The MB was just pure fraud and arrogance, which I just can’t stand!

10 years ago, when I was making a less money, I bought a used Lexus LS499 with 80k miles. First $110 oil change put me on the path of DIY. By the time I sold that Lexus, at somewhere around 150k miles, I had installed all new OEM suspension parts, brakes, rotors, motor mounts, transmission mount, flex couplings, and learned about synthetic fluids. Even went so far as to clean the butterfly opening of the throttle body with a Dremel tool. When I sold it, the lead mechanic at the Lexus dealer said it was the nicest LS400 he had seen in years. That was in 2007. From that, I learned about cars, and gained the confidence needed to not be intimidated by fixing them. Once you’re over that intimidation factor, it all just becomes nuts and bolts pieces together at certain torque settings.

I live by a theory - if I’m going to pay someone to do it, then it’s becaise they need to fix it because I screwed it up! But as I’ve gotten older, have a couple of kids (one special needs), and currently renovating a home I snagged off of a bk’d AOL.com guy for $0.70/dollar, I just don’t have the time like I used to for the cars. I do miss the sweet smell of automatic transmission fluid though! Once I get over the jump with the house and the kids grow a little less dependent on me for entertainment, I’ll be coming back to the cars. Ultimately I want a 911 in my garage, but can’t seem to fertilize that money tree fast enough, so the GTI will have to do instead.

nc211

PS: Sorry for typos! For some reason, when on my phone, I can’t see what I’m typing on this website. The sentence I’m typing is just one line too high up on the screen. iPhone 6s.

KEY08

My phone acts the exact same way. you scroll down to see what you are typing and then boom! it autoscrolls right back up.
Sorry about all of your issues and that jettisoned wheel is the bomb. I never trust anyone in the wheel well and always walk around with a torque wrench when I get home from wheel service. You are good to do as much DIY as you can handle on all of your cars and keep saving for the 911. I had a '89 911 Carrera that I should never have sold. You could eat a 4 course meal on the whale tail spoiler. LOL
Hang in there.

mellonc

That's nothing. This is a common stealership criminal practice perpetrated by the degenerates who couldn't finish high school on time. At this one Lexus dealer I visited, they not only billed the Lexus corporate for the fix that was needed but also try to charge me saying that it's not covered under the warranty. That, in the criminal lingo, is called "double dipping." At least they didn't try to charge you for it.

Airmousam

hyperion667

Oh man, I didn't finish high school on time either Hmmm, I also thought double dipping was just in ****

thefisch

And here I thought it was just for chips and dip...

hyperion667

^haha! That's like putting your whole mouth in the dip!

dbldpr

According to Webster dictionary Is a person who works for the government and does other work on the side. It also means 2 scoops of ice cream. " It can also mean twice in the bedroom"

hyperion667

2scoops